The Money Man, the Music Man & a Standing Order from Captain Bill Bailey, USMC

 

Grand Times on Grand Lake with Rusty Fleming as we track the history of the Duck Creek Fireworks Show 

Over the past few weeks, we’ve wandered down the historic trail to the 2025 Duck Creek Fireworks Show scheduled for Friday night, July 4th. Our time machine has taken us back to the forties when a few feisty members of the Cherokee Yacht Club set off fireworks on the club’s lakeside lawn to celebrate our nation’s grandest of national holidays. We’ve also reviewed how a tragic fire and subsequent bankruptcy of that very club, while disastrous at the time, lead this Grand Lake tradition to the spectacular show of patriotism it has become today.

The original "Money-Man," Skip Teel 

 As Joe Harwood says annually at the Sparkplug Dinner, which this year hosted a full house at the Cherokee Yacht Club,  to raise funds for the show, “It’s not about the money, but it’s about the money.”

 He adds, “Without a doubt this is the largest publicly funded show in the entire country!”

 In the early years, Captain Bill Bailey, who practiced law in nearby Vinita, Oklahoma, would canvass area businesses to contribute to the show to celebrate our country’s freedom with the hope that $5000 could be raised for the event. In recent years, over $150,000.00 has been raised for the celebration from both private and corporate donations. The most significant event transitioning this Grand Lake spectacle from that meager beginning to what we enjoy today occurred in the early eighties.

 It had become obvious that unless someone stepped up to the plate, the show would not go on. Bill Bailey had decided young Joe Harwood was up to the task and made a house call on the usually stoic Mr. Harwood, but Joe wasn’t sure he wanted to take the project on. But the old South Pacific Marine Corps vet had prevailed and Harwood was off and running.

 Harwood fondly recalls, That was one great old man and he did live long enough to thank me for what we have turned the show into. If he would have been less humble and a little more self-serving, it would have gotten there a lot sooner. Bill just needed someone to tell the story he couldn’t.”

 But there’s a lot more to this story of how the show was jettisoned from its simple beginning to what it has become today and that more can be equated to money. Shortly after Harwood took command of the show, he made his first donor pitch to long-time Grand Laker Skip Teel. Skip’s first recollection of Grand Lake was that of weekend visits to his uncle’s place in Drowning Creek in the late forties, prior to his dad building a place in 1951.

 Skip calls Tulsa home and is a U.S. Airforce vet, who has been extremely active in the Tulsa community for years, is a board member of several Tulsa based community organizations, a graduate of T.U., active alum and supports the prevention of child abuse among other things.

 Skip recalls, “Joe approached me about helping preserve and elevate a show I had been enjoying since I was a child and continued to look forward to as a young adult and later on in life. I was the first $1000 donor to the show and I did that for multiple reasons, but mainly because I wanted to preserve and continue that celebration of our freedom for future generations. I wanted them to have the same experience which had meant so much to me.”

 Even though some health issues have limited his time at his safe haven, as he calls Grand Lake, he leaves little doubt about where he would like to be come Friday night when he says, “I’ll be on my boat in front of Arrowhead, between the gas dock and courtesy slips, like so many times before, if my health permits,  and it never gets old.”

 For an event like this extravaganza over Duck Creek celebrating our country’s independence, there is no static; either it’s getting better or it’s in decline. The addition of the flyover by the Oklahoma Air National Guard, the participation of the vintage warbirds, an occasional World War II B-17 bomber and even a cardiologist, Dr. John Swartz and his son Corey, flying Korean era T-5 trainer jets over Duck Creek has made the show better each and every year and there’s more on the way.

We don’t want to steal any thunder, but a special ending is in store and worthy of paying close attention to, but we can tell you about the new and improved plans for the music incorporated in to the show…enter the Music Man, Dunn Faires, who professes his love for music, but retired from Northeastern State University as the Associate Dean of the College of Business & Technology.

The plans for improving the show’s music, strangely enough, got its start during a road trip to the Cobalt Boat Factory in Neodesha, Kansas. Faires had taken along a friend, who was a vet. According to Faires, he introduced his friend to Joe Harwood during the bus trip and the conversation quickly turned from Cobalt Boats to the fireworks and its associated music. Faires pointed out that not all of the branches of the military were represented in the music used.

Faires recalls, “I offered to send a sound file to Joe containing an arrangement which included all five. I also pointed out that some of the largest and most successful shows in the country, like New York and Washington DC, used more patriotic and march themes.”

Joe liked what he heard and an ongoing dialogue was established to develop a custom sound track specifically dedicated to the Duck Creek Show. Over 700 numbers were reviewed and a final plan was developed.

Faires did this sizable volunteer undertaking because he’s been hanging around Grand Lake for nearly 20 years and loves the show. And his seat for the event isn’t bad either as he has owned a Spinnaker Point condo with a northerly exposure for the past many years. And as he points out, “That way I control those in attendance by invitation.”

There you have it….A Money Man, a Music Man and a Standing Order from a Real Patriot and Member in Good Standing of Our Country’s Greatest Generation! Now let’s celebrate the birth of our nation 249 years ago come Friday night, July 4^th.

See Ya’ Around the Pond!

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A Look Back at the Duck Creek Fireworks Show

 

Chapter One…W.W. Bill Bailey

 From Grand Times on Grand Lake with Rusty Fleming 

Note: Our blog will feature the colorful history of the Duck Creek Fireworks Show as we approach theFourth

Nobody celebrated the Fourth
like "King Cracker" and
yours truly

 The Duck Creek Fireworks Show is the absolute King of Traditions when it comes to the annual Grand Lake celebration of our country’s independence. At the conclusion of World War II, some of the best recognized names in this part of the state had recognized the potential of Grand Lake and purchased lakefront property. Names Like McMahon, Siegfried, Bendel, Welch and LaFortune to name a few.

They didn’t just show up and find a grand and glorious fireworks show in Duck Creek every Fourth of July. What started as a one family fireworks show to celebrate our country’s freedom quickly expanded into a multiple family event. Then the Cherokee Yacht Club was constructed in Duck Creek and many of these same families gravitated to and continued with their family fireworks celebration.

 One of the earliest accounts of the meager beginning to what has become one of the largest fireworks displays in the nation comes courtesy of former Cherokee Yacht Club owner Terry Frost. According to Frost, his friend Orville Cole was the Commodore of the yacht club in 1948 and shared his memories with Frost of those early days. Cole described the 1948 celebration as a few families shooting off fireworks in front of the club and recalls a water skier making a couple of passes up Duck Creek; on the first pass he had sparklers and on the second pass he was celebrating by shooting off a Roman Candle.

 Soon the club itself was spearheading the annual tradition and had assumed the lead role. But a catastrophic fire in the early eighties, followed by bankruptcy after the club’s reconstruction, put the tradition’s future in jeopardy. Since the late forties, the show had been a summertime staple on Grand Lake. It was literally on the pirate ship’s plank, awaiting execution or for Captain Morgan to appear and save the day.

 Can’t say that I recall how many years Joe Harwood has been the driving force behind raising funds for the Duck Creek Fireworks Show, perhaps he’s the real Captain Morgan, but I can damn sure remember the first show I took in. The year was 1976 and I was on Everett Williams’ pontoon boat captained by his son-in-law, Rue Morgan. Morgan was never the shy type, and he had positioned himself right in front of the old Cherokee Yacht Club’s docks…. I think there may have been ten or twelve slips at most.

 When the show started, the site was spectacular and so up close and personal that debris from the exploding shells were finding their way onto the deck of the old boat. The presentation above Duck Creek was far beyond anything this Oklahoma City boy had ever seen at Spring Lake or Wedgewood Amusement Parks. And the grand finale of the show was so close, I could almost touch it……The outline of the American flag in sparklers of red, white and blue….and there was some guy, who seemed to be in charge, shouting out orders to his crew on how to get it done.

 I learned later, the guy I had seen was W.W. Bill Bailey and it seems he knew a thing or two about being in charge. Bill was an officer in the United States Marine Corps, World War II vintage, and a bona fide member of Tom Brokaw’s proclaimed “Greatest Generation.” He had survived six first wave landings in the South Pacific as a captain commanding an infantry unit, fondly called grunts by Marines, former and present. He was shot up, decorated and following the war, returned to Vinita, Oklahoma and started his successful law practice.

 Bill was one of the ring leaders at The Cherokee Yacht Club, who incidentally instigated a fireworks show to commemorate the celebration of our independence come each Fourth of July. He was “The Duck Creek Fireworks Show.” He lit the fuses; he canvassed area businesses and Lakers for funds to purchase the ordinance and probably even cleaned up the mess on the club’s lawn the next morning, after recovering from a very special celebration the previous night. For Bill Bailey, it was just plain more than a fun time at the lake…. I suspect it was about the men he lost and his personal realization of what the price of freedom was all about.

 When The Cherokee Yacht Club burned down in, I think ’82, rebuilt and eventually ended up in bankruptcy, Captain Bailey wasn’t concerned about where he would get his fried chicken on Thursday nights while the club remained closed. Bailey was most concerned about preserving a Grand Lake tradition he had personally helped build.

 Having been a full-time resident of Grand Lake since 1981, I always knew Joe Harwood had stepped forward to salvage the show. Like you perhaps, at the time, I might have been grateful the show was going to go on, but deep down probably thought it was at least partially about putting butts in those yacht club seats come the Fourth of July.

 On special and significant occasions, Harwood has reached back into those memory cells from circa 1982 and shared just how persuasive councilor Bailey could be. It had become obvious that unless someone stepped up to the plate, the show would not go on. Bill Bailey had decided young Joe was up to the task and made a house call on the usually stoic Mr. Harwood, but Joe wasn’t sure he wanted to take the project on.

 He recalls thinking, “This is like free kittens at the grocery store” and asking Bailey, “Why would I want to do that?”

 Joe recalls how Bailey explained to him just how important an emblem of our Independence the Duck Creek celebration had become. He recounted his memories of those six first wave landings and shared with Joe the number of casualties his unit had suffered. He shared with him how he had spent six years away from home, fighting for his country, and he’d be damned if the show to celebrate what he had fought for wasn’t going to continue.

 Harwood recounts the event like it was yesterday when he says, “That conversation took place right here on the Arrowhead deck. And by the time Bill was done, I was ready to do anything he asked with respect to the show. And as they say the rest is history and we’ve gone from $5,000 and $10,000 shows to what we have today.

Harwood adds, “Bill remained very involved in the show and I recall asking him for advice on more than one occasion. One year, the forecast looked terrible and there was a threat of rain. I called Bill and asked him what I should do if it rains, to which he replied, ‘Hell boy, it isn’t going to rain…it’s the Fourth of July.’ And you know what? It didn’t.”

 In an e-mail exchange with Harwood a few years ago, he was a little more revealing about that conversation and recruiting visit from the Marine Captain Bill Bailey from so long ago and wrote, “In his very measured dressing down of my pompous, spoiled ass, he let me know he had left half of his original platoon in the south pacific. He never raised his voice or touched me. But it was the worst ass kicking I’ve ever received! I never forgot it and it did put a fire in me that has not gone out.”

 He went on to write, “That was one great old man, and he did live long enough to thank me for what we have turned the show into. If he had been less humble and a little more self-serving, it would have gotten there a lot sooner. Bill just needed someone to tell the story he couldn’t.”

 In the end, it has become obvious Bill Bailey’s Fireworks Show is about a lot more than putting butts in yacht club seats. There is a lot of raw emotion for a lot of different personal reasons and none bigger than the celebration of our country’s independence.

 If you don’t want a house call from Captain W.W. Bill Bailey ghost, I suggest dusting off that checkbook and doing your part to preserve Bill’s party. The sound of freedom, baby…. Let’s all chip in and celebrate the freedom we enjoy in the greatest country on earth.

 Next week: Chapter II – When the Sound of Freedom entered the creek it was a game changer!

 See Ya’Around the Pond!